A Cheap Eats champ

By Kath Gannaway
“WHAT about if I have a café with Maggie” wasn’t really what Ross Wilson had in mind when he and wife Robyn opened a cellar door for their Medhurst wines.
The suggestion by daughter Fran however, became reality when the Red Shed Café opened in March 2007.
Turns out, it was a champion idea.
Fran Wilson and Maggie Mckeand’s Red Shed Café in Gruyere has got the gong as The Age Good Food Guide’s Country Cheap Eats Champ for 2009.
For the 25-year-old business partners who have been friends since school, the award just two years into their dream venture is still very much “pinch me” territory.
The café is a family affair.
Ross’s vision of a “lean-to” cellar door is anything but, thanks to a son who is an architect, a wife who is a designer, a hilltop location surrounded by vineyards and bushland and valley views.
“One of the fanciest ‘sheds’ in regional Victoria, Red Shed is a champ for its prime picnic hampers, friendly service and Medhurst wines,” is how Fran and Maggie’s Red Shed Café was summed up in Cheap Eats.
The café was reviewed in 2008 and received top marks. To get an award in the prestigious foodies’ guide this year, Fran said was amazing.
“We both love food and always had a dream to open up a café,” she said. “We wanted it to be casual, a little bit like the cafes we loved in Melbourne, but bring it out here.”
The food is simple and designed to be matched with the Medhurst wines.
“We just sort of taught ourselves,” Fran says. “The focus is about the ingredients … we just use really good ingredients and do simple food.”The formula clearly works!
The Red Shed Café is at Medhurst Wines, 24-26 Medhurst Road, Gruyere.